Friday, October 18, 2013

Whenever he
gets the opportunity, Indiana State House 46 district member Bobby Heaton (who
lives in Terre Haute) likes to let everyone know that he played basketball with
Larry Bird back in the good ole days at Indiana State University, but nowadays
Heaton is a Walmart team player, dribbling out school privatization for the
filthy rich who don’t even live in Indiana, let alone his district.

Representing the high poverty and
unemployed Vigo, Clay, Owen, andMonroe
counties,over the
last few years Heaton has receivedover
$113,000 from the Hoosiers for Economic Growth PAC.The Hoosiers for Economic Growth PAC is
funded by the Walmart/Amway Corporation DeVos family/hedge fundmanager/school voucher/charter school
millionaires and billionaires who run the American Federation for Children and
All Children Matters, front groups which I detail in my upcoming book Hoosier School Heist.

Hereis how the Walmart and DeVos/Hoosiers for
Economic Growth PAC's school privatization went down. Using heavy funding
from thirteen donors which included Betsy DeVos, Walmart’s Alice and Jim
Walton, Pennsylvania hedge fund managers, two leaders of charter schools in
Indiana (John Bryan and J.C. Huizenga), and Jeb Bush friend John Kirtley, the
American Federation for Children’s Indiana-registered PAC in 2010 funneled over
$4.6 million into the Hoosier state (through the Hoosiers for Economic Growth PAC) and six other states using the Terre Haute office mailbox address of
Christian Right lawyer James Bopp Jr., the man behind the Citizens United case
which gave rights to corporations to fund campaign super-PACs without
publically disclosing their donors.In 2010, the American
Federation for Children gave various Indiana corporate school front groups
$375,000 to attempt to swing eighty-five primary and general elections, using
millionaire Fred Klipsch, School Choice Indiana, and Hoosiers for Economic
Growth to elect a super-majority of Republicans to the Senate and
take total control of the House to pass anti-public education laws in 2011.

That is right.Thirteen filthy rich people bought out Hoop
Star Heaton, Indiana Republicans, and other lawmakers across the country to
throw children and teachers under the bus and hand money to private schools.Thirteen, the same number of people
in a kindergarten class in Indiana, not counting the aides, since a lot of
schools don’t have them because there’s not enough money left after the free-market Christian Right schools and the for-profit charter
school owners like John Bryan and J.C. Huizenga get their way because of people like Heaton.

The Walton Walmart family, it should be
noted, has the wealth of48 million American families combined.Their
whole goal is to privatize education so that rich people can steal our public
schools and pay our teachers pennies. Michigan's DeVos family promotes biblical capitalism, school vouchers, and the free-market Christian Right message that Jesus hated poor people and came back to earth as Mitch Daniels’ buddy Milton Friedman to steal from the poor and help kill off citizensin Chile under dictator Augusto Pinochet.In
2010, Heaton took a staggering $47, 250
from the Walmart Walton Family/DeVos front group (see page 6 in the PDF box).In 2012 (see page 25 in PDF box), Walmart and DeVos' Hoosiers for Economic Growth
PAC gave Heaton $30,500 to spread school vouchers and charter schools across
Indiana.In 2008, Heatonpocketed another $35,000 fromthe filthy rich school privatizers (see
page7in PDF box).

Heaton is also funded by JP Morgan Chase (see page 4 in the PDF box), the mega-bank whose CEOs plan to do
with schools what they did with middle-class and poor families doing the
housing bubble, kick the kids to the streets and steal the roofs over their heads.JP Morgan has been making money from loans to
charter schools in the Hoosier state and across America.Quite frankly, the only place JP Morgan
Chase’s leaders belong in Indiana is in the federal prison in Terre Haute in Heaton’s own
backyard.

And let’s not forget that Heaton is also
gifted by Eli Lilly (see page 25 in PDF box), which pretty much owns school reform in
Indiana, as I’ve noted too many times to count. The drug company and its
nonprofits, by far, are big players in the
corporate school movement in Indiana, and current and past board members sit on
a whole slew of
boards and fund the people and groups out to privatize our schools.

When they are not hiding billions of dollars
in tax havens overseas or illegally marketing Zyprexa to nursing home residents, a drug
which haskilled off more than a few senior
citizens and hurt thousands of people of all ages, they are funding the
temporary teacher outfits Teach for America and the New Teacher Project in
Indiana to take the place of real Hoosier educators.

Heatonhas also taken money from Faegre Baker & Daniels LLP , the shady
lawyers in Indianapolis I wrote about at Douglas Storm’s Common Errant a year ago, pointing out they
helped fund Indy mayor Greg Ballard’s campaign for corporate charter schools.

Heaton is loaded with money from
corporate school operative Brian Bosma and Mitch Daniels' out-of-state funded
Aiming Higher PAC.Aiming Higher is also
funded by the Betsy DeVos/Walmart/hedge fund front group All Children Matter.

Iam sure some of the small business people (like Baesler's Market) who gave a few hundred dollars in Terre Haute to Heaton's campaign would like to know
how Heaton is working for Walmart, the mega-corporation out to put them out of
business. I am positive his minister at the Union Christian Church in Terre Haute may like to know what "Christians" he's associating himself with. Teachers, real Christians, parents, small
businesses, and community leaders in Terre Haute should know what team All Star Heaton's really playing on, how thirteen people running Walmart, Amway, hedge funds, and Indiana charter schools handed Bobby Heaton almost $113,000 for his role to turn over our schools to the wealthy. They should also knowthat Larry Bird did not fund Heaton’s
campaign.

A national expert on the corporate and theocratic assault against public education, Doug Martin is the author of Hoosier School Heist, the book which exposes the corruption, scandals, and campaign financing behind so-called school reform in Indiana and elsewhere. OrderHoosier School Heist and get the facts.